English

Noun

Conchology is the scientific, semi-scientific, or
amateur study of the shells
of mollusks. It can include the study of the shells (i.e. the
calcareous exoskeletons of the phylummollusca, which includes the
operculum
of the organism where one is present - a "trap door" the animal
uses to protect itself from predators and extreme conditions) of
land, freshwater, and marine mollusks.

Conchology is often confounded with shell
collecting in general. However, many collectors are primarily
concerned with the perceived beauty (aesthetic value) and the
extreme variability of shapes, colors and patterns of shells, as
opposed to systematic study of these natural
history objects. One does not have to be a shell collector in
order to be a conchologist: this simply requires access to private
and/or institutional collections. The two terms can therefore
regarded as distinct, although there is some debate in the
conchological community about this matter with many considering all
collectors regardless of motivation, to be conchologists of one
kind or another.

Conchology can be viewed as a branch of malacology, which is the
study of molluscs (UK spelling) or mollusks (US spelling) as whole
organisms, not just their shells - and indeed, conchology predated
malacology as a field of study by many years: ever since at least
the time of the ancient Egyptians (reference needed), people have
admired, collected and no doubt studied mollusc shells.

That having been said, the term "conchology" is
used by some (especially in Europe) to mean the same thing as
"malacology", thus when using the term it is often useful to
"operationally define" what you are refering to.

In current times, conchology (i.e. in its more
constrained sense) is often seen as rather archaic: it is sometimes
considered to be lacking in scientific rigor because of the
limitation of looking only at the shell of an organism.

In the scientific or natural
history sense, conchologists study these animal shells in order
to gain an understanding of the diverse and complex taxonomy of mollusks. As with
many other taxonomic fields, molluscan taxonomy is in a constant
state of flux.

Conchology deals with all mollusk shells,
however, squid and other
cephalopods do not
have outer shells (with the exception of the Nautiloidea),
having evolved just to have an internal bone or shell, used for
buoyancy or support. Some groups (such as the aptly named nudibranchs) have lost their
"skeleton" (internal and/or external) altogether, while in some it
has been replaced by a cartilaginous support structure. Because of
this, conchologists deal mainly with the molluscan orders which
constitute the gastropods (snails), bivalves, Polyplacophora
(chitons) and Scaphopoda (tusk
shells).

History of Conchology

Shell collecting, the "ancestor" or
precursor of conchology, most likely goes back for as long as there
have been people and beaches: someone walking on the beach would
pick up a shell for its beauty and maybe go out the next day to
look for more. The fact that molluscs have probably been used by
primates as a food source even before humanoids evolved added to
its commonality. There have been seashell necklaces found from the
Stone
Age, some of which were found in areas removed from the ocean,
indicating that they were traded. Shell necklaces and jewelry are found at almost all
archaeological sites, including at ancient Aztec ruins, digs in
ancient China, the Indus
Valley, and Native American sites. During the Renaissance,
people began taking interest in natural objects of beauty to put in
wunderkammern.
Because of their attractiveness, variety, durability and ubiquity
(shell-bearing molluscs can be found from nearly all marine and a
huge variety of land and fresh water habitats) shells became a
large part of these collections. Towards the end of the seventeenth
century, people began looking at shells with scientific interest.
Lister in
1685-1692 published Historia Conchyliorum, which was the first
comprehensive conchological book, with over 1000 engraved
plates.

George Eberhard Rumpf, or Rumphius, (1627-1702)
was another important early conchologist. He published the first
classifications of molluscs into different groups; he suggested
"Single Shelled Ones" (Polyplacophora, limpets, and abalones), "Snails or Whelks"
(Gastropods), and "Two-Shelled Ones" (Bivalves). Rumphius first
published many of the names and taxonomic terms adopted by Linnæus,
and continued to do important scientific work even after he went
blind, working by feel.

The study of shells & molluscs, like most
other branches of zoology, was revolutionized by
the "father of modern taxonomy" Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnæus
and his system of nomenclature.
It is now commonly held that 683 of the 4000 or so animal species
he described, are now considered to be molluscs (see Harry G. Lee's
excellent article at the Jax Shells website (which contains many
well researched conchological articles) for details), although he
placed them in several phyla at the time.

After Linnæus, conchology/malacology became an
official branch of zoology. There have been many prominent
conchologists in the past few centuries; the Sowerby family were
famous collectors and shell dealers, as well as being noted for
their superb illustrations; John Mawe (1764
– 1829) produced arguably the first conchology how-to guide - The
Voyager's Companion or Shell-Collector's Pilot as well as The
Linnæan System of Conchology; Hugh Cuming
(1791-1865) also is famous for his huge collection and number of
new species discovered. Another fundamental work was American
Conchology, or Descriptions of the Shells of North America,
Illustrated From Coloured Figures From Original Drawings, Executed
from Nature (six volumes, 1830-1834), written by Thomas
Say.

Perhaps the most prominent conchologist of the
20th century was R. Tucker
Abbott. Author of dozens of books on conchology, Senior
Advisor, Founding Director, and finally Museum Director of the
Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Abbott brought the world of
conchology to the public. His most prominent works are "American
Seashells" 1955 & 1974, Seashells of the World, 1962, and The
Kingdom of the Seashell, 1972. See :Category:Conchologists
and Guido
Poppe for others. Many of the finest collections of seashells
are in private hands. John du Pont, and Jack Lightbourne, among
others, are known for extensive collections. Emperor Hirohito of
Japan also amassed a huge collection, and was a competent and
respected amateur conchologist. That said, John DuPont donated his
shell collection to the Delaware Museum of Natural History (DMNH)
in 1984, and by far the world's largest assemblage of mollusc
shells is housed at the Smithsonian
Institution, which has millions of lots and perhaps 50,000
species, versus perhaps 35,000 species for the largest private
collections.

Uses of shells

Shells have been collected for millennia,
but not just for their beauty.

Molluscs, especially bivalves such as clams and mussels, have been an important
food source for many different peoples around the world; one
example of this is Midden heaps in
North American archeology. Other molluscs commonly eaten include
octopuses and squid,
whelks, oysters, and scallops.

Shells have also been used as currency (ie, as a medium of
exchange) in various places, including many Indian and Pacific
Ocean islands, North America, Africa and the Caribbean. The most
common shells to be used as currency have been Cypraea moneta
Linne, the “money cowry”, and certain tusk shells, such as those
used in North Western North America for many centuries. As well,
the Native American wampum belts were made of the
shell of the quahog
mollusc. See Shell-money for
more information. It is of historic interest that the Dutch East
Indian Company, a major force in the colonization of the Indian and
Pacific Oceans, amassed a large portion of its vast fortune via
trading shell money of the species Cypraea moneta L., and C.
annulus, for commodities such as spices, exotic animals and
gemstones considered valuable in Europe at the time.

Shells have often been used as tools due to their variety of
shapes. Giant clams
(Family Tridacnidae) have been used as bowls, and when big enough,
even as bathtubs and baptismal fonts. The bailer
volute is so named because Native Australians would use it to bail
out their canoes. Many bivalves were used for scrapers, blades,
clasps, and other such tools, due to their shape. Some gastropods
have been used for oil lamps, the
oil being poured in the cavity and the siphonal
canal being a perfect holder for the wick.

Shells play a part in religion and spirituality, as well. In
Botticelli’s Venus, the goddess Venus
(goddess) is depicted as rising from the ocean on a scallop shell. The scallop shell
is also considered the symbol of Saint
James the Great. In Hinduism, the
left-handed Chank shell is considered sacred to the god Vishnu. One who
finds a left-handed Chank shell (one that coils to the left) is
sacred to Vishnu, as well. The Chank shell plays an important role
in Buddhism, as well.
Cowries were often considered symbols of female fertility, as the
shape of the underside of the shell has a resemblance to a vulva. In Santeria, shells
are used for divination purposes.

Shells also have been used as musical instruments, usually
trumpets; the most prominent examples are the Triton
shell (Charonia tritonis L.), used as a trumpet in Melanesian
and Polynesian culture, and the Queen Conch
(Strombus gigas L.), also often used as a trumpet.

Shells have a place in personal adornment, often being used as
jewelry. Shell necklaces have always been very popular, and have
been found in Stone Age graves as far inland as the Dordogne Valley in
France. The Bullmouth Helmet was used to make cameos, and mother of pearl, from
abalones or other bivalves, has often been used as decoration - for
example, Pearly
Kings and Queens wear buttons made of
mother-of-pearl.

For decoration. For example, "Sailor's
Valentines" were late nineteenth century decorative keepsakes
which were made in the Caribbean, and which were often purchased by
sailors to give to their loved ones back home. They consisted of
elaborate arrangements of seashells glued into attractive
symmetrical designs, which were encased on a wooden (usually
octagonal) hinged box-frame. The patterns used often featured
heart-shaped designs, or included a sentimental expression of love
spelled out in small shells.

Some shell byproducts have also been used in industrial
processes. The pen shell’s byssus was used to make rare,
very fine, fabric reserved for royalty. Royalty also got the
benefit of another molluscian byproduct: Tyrian
purple, made from the ink glands of murex shells. It is similar to the
t’khelet
blue, made from Murex
trunculus, used in tzitzit.

Finally, one of the most significant shell by-products are
pearls, particularly the
ones created by several species of pearl
oysters. Many species of molluscs including gastropods also produce some
kind of pearl. Indeed there is currently a huge trade in the pearls
of fresh-water bivalves, although these pearls are almost never
valued as highly as valuable as pearls from the saltwater pearl
oyster.

Applied conchology

Many conchologists are employed in the
study of molluscs that are directly beneficial or harmful to
humans. The study of beneficial molluscs, such as bivalves used for
food like clams and mussels, or pearl
oysters, is primarily focused on their ecology and life habits,
the primary concern being the understanding of how to raise them
and make them more productive.

Conversely, much of the study of harmful molluscs
is focused on their physiology, with the goal of developing
controls that are effective while minimizing undesirable side
effects. One example of a harmful "introduced" & invasive
mollusc is the zebra
mussel, which has spread throughout North America, costing
billions of dollars. Considerable recent effort have gone into
finding biological
controls such as species-specific parasites and diseases, as
well as genetic controls.

Organizations

Like other scientific specialties,
conchologists have a number of local, national, and international
organizations. There are also many organizations specializing in
specific subareas.

Museums

Many museums contain very large and important
mollusc collections.

Natural History Museum, USA
National Museum of Natural History - The Smithsonian Museum of
Natural History has one of, if not the, finest shell collection in
the world. (This science is researched here by Dr. Ellen Stronge,
who basically studies marine biology but is also involved in
Conchology) Some other museums are:

Identification of molluscs

Molluscs are usually identified
by consulting general or regional shell collecting guides (an
example of a general guide is the Compendium of Seashells, by R.T.
Abbott and P. Dance), and specific scientific books on different
taxa of shell-bearing molluscs (monographs) or "iconographies"
(limited text - mainly photographs). The identifications are
generally achieved by examining illustrations and written
descriptions, rather than by the use of Identification
keys as is more often the case in identifying plants. This is
because the great amount of variability within many species and
families makes the construction of truly useful keys extremely
difficult. Because the phylum Mollusca contains a very large number
of species and the characters separating them are constantly being
debated, identification of some individual species is often very
difficult even for a specialist.

Numerous smaller and more obscure mollusc species
are yet to be described. In other words they have not yet been
differentiated from similar species and assigned scientific
(binomial) names in articles in journals recognized by the
International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) by scientists.
Large numbers of new species are published in the scientific
literature each year. There are currently an estimated 100,000
species worldwide.